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Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Also from Oct 2012

I have not updated the reconstruction of the Old O'Fallon Mo Fort Zumwalt in a while.

This first photo is of the fort in the late 19th century and this is how it looked at it's most complete.

This photo is from 1937 when the fort was being taken down after being mapped and researched.

The old stone fireplace was all they left and it stood for many years. But it finally came down also.

Here is how it stands now, looking at the same side as the 1937 photo. That would be the east-south-east.

A little closer.

With the center and west sections being worked on.

Rebuilt fireplace serving the center section and the west section.

Floor joinery.

A table lap joining the two sections.
It is really hard to join two cabins together that are not built at the same time, and this would not be a preferred method.
They are doing it this way to replicate the original.

There is probably a good reason the original builders built it like this.
One reason would be shortage of man power, so short logs were used to make it easier for just a couple people and a horse to do the work.

North side of center and west section.
The walls are not as high on this side, so we can see the floor joins a little better.

Same but longer view.

Really nice ax work on the floors joining near the fireplace where a full log could not span the width of the floor. They would probably use a dove-tail joint at the connections to keep the logs from pulling out.

A closer look.

Near the chimney the logs also could not run the complete span of the walls, so a tongue in groove join would have to do.

Once above the opening of the fireplace, logs could start spanning the room again.
Notice the shelf built into the fireplace to help support that first log.
You can also see the tongue running up to the first complete log. It would be notched into the bottom of that log.

South side wall.

The groove on the south wall, up close.
Note the tongue on the first log.